The party's over....

what's one more

We are pet-sitting this week for my sister who is in Florida for spring break. I was worried about how our dogs would get along. But even Nike the crazy dog is ok with it.

Breakfast Milk

My kids are not a breakfast eaters on school mornings, and I never was as a kid either. My kids love Starbucks and chocolate milk so I figured mixed strong, over ice, they might drink Carnation Instant Breakfast. Score one for mom - two of the three like it.

This morning I mixed myself a travel container, but forgot it in the fridge. My middle daughter came home from practice, opened the fridge, and said, "Is that breakfast milk? Can I drink it!"

Hooray for Breakfast Milk!

Boston

This past weekend, I went to Boston with my two oldest girls on a music trip. We saw the JFK Museum, Bunker Hill, and Harvard. We had the most amazing pasta primavera, cupcakes, and bakery - ever. And we got to spend some quality time with Medford's finest while they rescued nine of our kids from the elevator when it got stuck between floors. Now that's a vacation!

Thunder dog

We had one of the first thunderstorms of the spring. Neither dog likes thunder, but Nike, the crazy dog, is petrified. Since the crate was already taken, she found the next best place she could to wait it out....

Who, me? Competitive?

My oldest and I went to a another college event. While the kids took a placement test, the parents had a separate program - a college trivia game. The facilitator gave us all a keypad control, and read the directions. The intent of the program was for us to learn some things about the college in a fun, interactive way. And then he mentioned prizes. Prizes? That changes everything.

And so it started. "These three businesses employ the highest percentage of our graduates." Duh, pick the answer with the biggest three. "I may have mentioned this in an earlier question... " You did, and I was paying attention, not like the 30% who answered wrong. "This building has a theater that can hold..." There's a map of the campus on the folder they gave us. "Remember you can poll your neighbor," he said. Poll my neighbor. Are you crazy? There are prizes.

I have used this keypad system before for trainings. All of my answers were recorded by the software and can be matched to the number on the keypad they gave me, which is listed next to my daughter's name. How's that for market research?

But hey, I won my daughter a college logo t-shirt...

Just call her Webster

We were on the way to a tournament with our youngest daughter and her friend. Her friend has a reputation as a reader, and my daughter was giving her a hard time about it. Her friend pointed out that kids who read have a better vocabulary than kids who don't. My daughter said, "Why do I need the word "domicile" when I have "house" and "home" already. Nope, I have all the words I need."

Now, why would a mother not be proud of that? (eye roll)

Estrogen, and lots of it

I am officially the mother of three teen age girls. My youngest turned 13 in March and the middle daughter made this awesome cake for her. Nike, the crazy dog, ate it.

So what's new around here?

Well, I didn't plan on taking a break from my blog, but apparently I needed to.

I am learning that my blog is a balance barometer - when I haven't posted anything for a while, I need to look at how I am spending my time. For the past month, our family has been juggling schedules that do not match at all. I have some big projects with looming deadlines at the office and the boss kinda likes it when I come in to work. The kids are in transition from winter to spring sports - winter sports aren't quite over but the spring ones have already started - double duty. With the time that's left at night I've been choosing between making dinner and doing laundry. Sad.

But I am re-balancing things. I cleaned the garage, got a haircut, and added music to my ipod. Hey, you have to start somewhere. And I updated my blog - there's progress.

Ice storm

this one's so easy, I'm almost embarrassed to share

Tonight is Senior Night for Basketball, and I wanted to do something for my oldest. Nice, but not too sentimental. That left food or humor, so on my way home I stopped by Michael's for some supplies....

some quality me time

My best friend's son is out on his own now. Earlier this week he updated his Facebook status to "takin' some me time", so I sent him a message and asked what he was doing for his me time. "I don't know." When I replied with "lol" he said, "No seriously, what do you do to take a me day?"

Funny thing is, I'm 40 years old and still ask myself the same question....

getting ready

This week the kids had a dance at school, and we always take dozens of pictures. I love this one. The contrast of her doing her make-up while sitting like a little kid, books among body sprays really highlights "teenager-ness". And you can't even see that her room is a total mess.

i got nothin'

I really tried to find a "simple thing" this week, but my life wasn't having it. I guess my simple thing is enjoying a few of the moments others were able to capture! Check them out...

Driver on the way!

Yesterday was my middle daughter's half birthday - let me clarify that - it was her 15-1/2 birthday. In Wisconsin that means learner's permit. You have to have your learner's permit for six months before you can take your driver's test, so if you want to get your license on your 16 birthday, and who doesn't, then you have to get your learner's permit on your half birthday. Or you die.

On the way home from the Department of Motor Vehicles, with temps in hand, I turned into a cemetery. Middle daughter asked, "Wait why are we going here?" "You wanna drive today, right?" "Yeah...." "Well, you can't kill dead people," I said. So we drove around until she had a feel for things.

As we were switching places to go home she said, "If I have bad luck driving it's your fault." "I don't understand," I said. "You're supposed to hold your breath when you drive past a cemetery and you had me driving in it. You're only safe if you're here for ... cemetarian things," she said.

Whew. Glad it wasn't me violating the superstition rules....

A word of advice...

Ok, moms out there. I am not a fashionista, but shape-ups, leggings as pants, and a fur-lined apple-bottom jacket are not a good outfit to accompany your child to a college visit. I'm just sayin'....

I thought she would outgrow it eventually.

After the kids went upstairs for the night I went to say goodnight. My middle daughter has always been the child who slept. Fell asleep first, took the longest nap, and slept in the longest. Once when she was little - you know that stage where parents understand them but everyone else needs a translator - she said, "I am ti-yahd," climbed in her crib and went to bed for the night. Another time we told her to go to sleep, and she replied, "I can't fall asleep just like...." Out.

So at 11pm, when she fell asleep in her pre-calc it was no surprise. While I was taking this picture she opened her eyes, looked at me, started to get out of bed, and whined, "Argh. I barely slept at all."

"Sweetie," I said, "it's not even midnight. You have six hours to sleep still." She smiled closed her eyes and fell back to sleep.

The best part? A few days later I was showing her friends the pics and middle kid says, "Wait is that me? When was that?"

These boots are made for....

So I was looking for a way to stretch my winter work wardrobe. I avoided buying a pair of dress boots even though I really wanted a pair, because I didn't want to spend money on something so seasonal. But as I was walking through Wal-mart, I came across a pair on clearance.

I am so happy I bought them. I have several winter skirts that I rarely wear because dress shoes don't work well or look very smart in the snow. I feel like I have a whole new closet!

winter morning light

My oldest and I attended an event on Saturday, and I loved the way the winter sunlight looked over the lake - blue and muted. Simple, beautiful.

Tell me again why we have pets....

Today while we were at work and school one of the dogs got locked in my oldest daughter's bedroom. She was sleeping all snuggled up on the bed when we left and somehow must have closed the door, and found herself trapped. She pulled the carpet back, shredded the pad, and separated the carpet and backing. She also ate everything in the room - books, gift bags, baskets - and chewed up the bottom of the door.

We were able to fit most of the pieces of the pad-puzzle back together and fold the carpet back. There is a one inch gap where it meets the hallway, and about a 10 inch tear down the middle being held together with packing tape right now.

I would be furious about it except she's a rescue dog who came to us in bad condition. Who knows what she went through before we got her, thanks to my other sister (who will be helping us replace the carpet later this year).